FPTP vs MMP

[Marcus Brubaker]

Evan Leibovitch wrote:
> Take a look around you. Small parties (such as Shas in Israel) have huge
> amounts of control in coalition minority governments -- which will be
> the rule rather the exception under MMP.
>
> When the mainstream parties are weakened and fringe parties empowered
> beyond their numbers as MMP would do, the very act of building a
> government after the election can be a national nightmare. For an
> extremely current and relevant example, look at what's happening NOW in
> Belgium. They had their election in June and the parties STILL cannot
> between them create a single coalition capable of leading.
>
> That' s right. Belgium has had no government for more than 100 days, and
> prospects for a quick settlement are 50/50. Similar has happened in
> other countries which have gone to 'fairer' systems. Legislative
> gridlock is practically invited in systems that require frequent
> coalition building, as MMP will do.
>   

Israel and Belgium are true red herrings here.  Both are very young 
democracies with serious social, political and religious divides.  
Israel doesn't even use MMP, they use List PR which I don't think 
*anyone* would propose for Ontario, not even the Israelis. The crisis in 
Belgium has nothing to do with MMP, little to do with a minority 
government and everything to do with fundamental divides about whether 
Belgium should even be a country.  The same kind of things could happen 
here with FPTP if we had several geographic parties.  In fact, FPTP 
*encourages* geopolitical divisions in the electorate, witness the Bloc.

Marcus
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